Portable blower



H. C. REEEL.

PORTABLE BLOWER. APPLICATION FILED mp2s, 1920.

Patented Apr. 12,1921.

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INVENTOR; HASTINGS C. REED 'Patemea A'pr.- 12,v1921.

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PDRTAELIJ BLOWER.

Application filed January 29, 1920.

1 0 all nc/10m it may concern:

lle it known that l, His'riNos U. REED, a citizen of the United States of America, rcsiding at Cedarville, in the county of Greene and State of "Ohio, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Portable Blowers, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates generally to portable blowers, and more particularly to a machine for surfacing roadways by blowine' surface gravel, broken stone screenings and the like upon a roadway prepared for the reception of the same as by means of an application of tar, oil and the like upon the roadway bed, my object being the PlOl'lSlOil of a simple, readily portable apparatus which may be positioned and drawn along the center of a roadway and which has a material discharge of allexible nature 011-. pable of covering the entire roadway from the centrally located machine.

Bi further object is the provision of a readily portable machine which may be drawn iontinuously alongthe center of a roadway or intermittently shifted therealong, having provision for the feed of material to the machine from the roadway side and having means to exclude material likely to break or injure the blower in its action.

As is well known at the present time the final surfacing of roadways by means of fine gravel, stone, screenings and crushed rock and the like is accomplished by shoveling such material over. tarred or oiled roadbed. This practice leads to uneven distribution of the finishing surface or surfacing material and results in frequent improperly covered spots and in failure of the material to find its way into cracks and roadbed imperfections.

With my improved apparatus in which the material is forced in the nature of a blast against the surface of the roadway prepared for its reception, uniform proper distribution of surfacing material is assured, and a more lasting roadway surface is provided for. I

In the accompanying, drawings which illustrate my present invention and form a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a-front elevation,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view,

3 is a side elevation,

Fig. l is a side view of the blower partly Specification of Letters Fat-cut.

Patented Apr. 12, 1921. Serial No. 354,903.

broken away, and with the conveyor dctached,

Fig. 5 is a vertical section through the lower portion of the blower, and

Fig. 6 is a detail vertical transverse section through the conveyor.

Referring now to these figures my invention proposes an apparatus including a wheeled truck preferably having a flat platform 10 and wheels 11 mounted upon forward and rear axles 12, the forward axle having a turn able connection at 13 with the platform and having an extending tongue i l by means of which the apparatus as a whole may be drawn from place to place.

Mounted upon the forward portion of the platform 10 is a source of power at 15, either in the nature of a motor, on internal combustion engine or thelike, whoselaterallv V. u 1 .4 v p ojec ting orlve shaft 16 has a belt pulley l7 and a sprocket wheel connected by a sprocket chain 18 with a sprocket wheel mounted loosely on a countershaft l9 and provided with a clutch face 20. This clutch face is engageable by a clutch member 21 splined on the countershaft and movable under control of an upstanding clutch lever 22.

The belt pulley 1'? of the drive shaft is connected by a belt 23 to a pulley 24 secured upon the fan or blower shaft 25, and upon this shaft 25 a hub of the blower 26 is secured, as best seen in Fig. 5.

The fan or blower 26 is mounted within a cylindrical casing 27, the side walls of which have flanged lowerends 28 secured upon the platform 10, and the lower portion of which has a depending and rearwardly extending discharge spout 29 with which one end of a flexible discharge tube 30 is engaged infltho use of the invention.

The discharge tube 30 may have any suitable form of nozzle 31 at its discharge end and may be of any suitable construction which will adapt the same to flex for the purpose of covering the roadway surface from side to side while the blower apparatus is intermittently shifted along the crown or central portion of the road bed.

At one side opposite to that through which the shaft 25 extends, the blower casing 2? is provided with a central intake opening 32 provided with an intake chute 33, this intake chute having a transverse screen 34 therein to exclude large particles of material likely to injure or break the blower. I

The intake chute 33 is moreover provided with side bearings 35 forthe inner driven shaft 86 of a conveyer, said shaft having a sprocket wheel 37 at one side connected by a sprocket chain 38 with a sprocket wheel mountedupon a shaft 39, the latter of which is journaled in a bearing bracket e0 secured upon the platform 10 at one side and geared by gears ii with the countershaft 19 before described.

illhe conveyer just referred to may be of any suitable type and is here shown in the nature of an endless belt conveyer, the end less belt being indicated at e2 between flaring side walls 43 and extending around end rollers 44:, one of the latter of which. is mounted on the shaft 36.

Adjacent to their outer ends, the side walls 43 of tne conveyer are preferably provided with angular bearing brackets i5 through which are extended supporting posts l6, adjustably secured by set screws a7, and engageable with the roadway surface at their lower ends so as to adjustably support the outer end of the spect to its height above the ground, the conveyer as a whole being swingable upon its inner shaft 36 in a vertical direction to permit of adjustment of its outer end with respect to the surface of the ground and for the further purpose of enabling the same to be swung upwardly and inwardly to the dotted line position of Fig. 1 where it will remain inactive while the machine is transporting from place to place between operations.

The conveyer is preferably in length sufficient so that the machine transversing the central portion or crown of a roadway, the free end of the conveye will extend approximately to one side of the roadway as indicated in Fig. 1 so that the surfacing material in the nature of ravel screenin s and the like'may be shoyeled onto the conveyer from the roadway side and delivered by the conveyer at its inner end to the chute 33 through which it is taken into the center of the blower, and by the latter, forced outwardly through the discharge spout 29 and the flexible discharge tube 30 on to the roadway surface.

It will be understood that workmen carry and properly guide the outer discharge end of the discharge tube 30 so that the surfacing material will be forcibly discharged against the roadway surface and in this way caused to properly find its way into cracks, crevices and the like.

It will also be understood that while the blower is continuously and evenly operated conveyer in re-.

through its feed connection from the source of power, the amount of material fed thereto may be controlled through the interposition of the clutch 20, 21, sothat under manual control of the operator, movement of the conveyer may be checked or stopped from time to time as desired.

As before stated the conveyer aside from the essentials as particularly mentioned may be of various constructions, and the source of power may be varied at will depending upon whether or not power can be derived from an outside source.

Thus in operation within cities an electric motor may be utilized while in rural opera tions an internal combustion engine will probably be preferable.

I claim:

1. An apparatus of the character described comprising a portable frame, a blower casing therein having an intake at one side and a discharge spout, a blower therein, connections for rotating the blower, a chute carried by the casing adjacent to its intake, a laterally projecting conveyer whose inner end is hingedly connected adjacent to the said chute permitting the 'conveyer to swing vertically, and connections for operating the conveyer, said chute having a screen therein between the inner end of the conveyer and the intake of the blower casing as described.

2. An apparatus of the character described including a wheeled frame, a blower casing mounted thereon having an intake at one nections for operating the blower, and connections for operatingthe conveyer.

3. An apparatus of the character described including a wheeled frame, a blower casing mounted thereon having an intake at one side and having a lower discharge spout and a flexible discharge tube connected with said spout, a feed conveyer projecting laterally from the blower casing and swingable to vertical and horizontal positions with respect thereto on a pivot at its inner end adjacent to the intake of the casing, a blower within the casing, connections for operating theblower, connections for operating the conveyer, and vertically adjustable ground engaging supporting posts connected to the outer portion of the conveyer as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HASTINGS C. REED. 

